


Things Are Looking Up

by NahaFlowers



Category: The Crimson Field
Genre: I love these three so much I need them to be together and happy, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 22:24:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13133460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NahaFlowers/pseuds/NahaFlowers
Summary: Miles has been having a hellish day. A hellish week, in fact. No, a hellish month.Luckily, Thomas and Kitty have worked out a way to cheer him up.





	Things Are Looking Up

**Author's Note:**

> Posting this across from Tumblr, written for breefraser on there. I love these three so much and this is maybe one of my favourite pieces I've written for them.

It has been a hellish day, in a hellish week, in a hellish month, in a hellish year. Miles is usually the first to offer a cheery word of encouragement and positivity when someone else is sad or upset or moody, he prides himself on the ability to get a smile out of anyone. But today his face is like thunder, and he cannot bring himself to hide it any longer.

_It’s the war_ , he tells himself.  _All these dead and dying men, the horror stories, the inability to save them all, to put their hearts and minds and bodies back together - it would wear on anyone after a while, old chap. You’re owed a few grumpy days._

He knows this isn’t the entire truth, though. Well, the part about being owed a few grumpy days is, he thinks wryly. But it’s not just the war. It’s-it’s them.

He cannot even think their names together without pain, and that is the problem, Miles thinks. If only they would let him in, would even consider it, but he cannot imagine even asking them, bringing it up - especially not with Tom. How can they offer it if they don’t know what he wants? But the fear, the fear not just of rejection, but of how they would look at him, in hate and disgust and even fear, themselves - that was what makes it impossible. And without it, he will never be happy.

Well, perhaps he is being melodramatic, but it certainly feels that way at the moment.

He ducks under the flap of the tent he shares with Tom, and sighs when he sees the other man sitting at his typewriter. He flops down at his bed.

Tom looks up from whatever he’s typing, frowns over at him. “What’s wrong with you today?”

Miles just groans into the bedclothes, choosing not to answer, rather than to snap at his best friend and make his mood even worse.

He does not hear Tom come over, but suddenly he feels a hand on his back. He curls into a ball, away from him, barely able to stand the friendly touch. God, but he is pathetic. He realises he is crying, and that is the last humiliation he can stand to take today. He resolves never to get up again.

“Miles?” Tom asks softly. “Are you crying?”

Miles just gives him the finger. He hears Tom chuckle, and just buries himself deeper into the bedclothes. Well, fuck him.

“Miles,” says Tom. “Me and Kitty have something planned.” Miles’s heart rejects the words, but his ears prick up - Tom’s voice sounds strange; it has a quality he’s never heard in it before. “Will you come with me?”

Miles uncurls himself and looks at Tom, wiping away the tears from his face. “Where?” he asks in a small suspicious voice.

Tom almost laughs again, and then stops himself. “The beach.”

Miles considers it, then nods. “All right, then,” he says, and gets up.

Tom nods in return, but says nothing, just leading the way out of the tent.

Kitty is waiting for them, curled up by a rock on the beach, wrapped in a blanket. It is mid-October, and although it is not freezing yet, it  _is_ windy, and not exactly warm.

“Miles!” says Kitty happily, as she sees them coming towards her. Miles cheers up almost immediately - Kitty has that effect on him. She lays the blanket down on the sand and makes a space for both of them.

“What’s this?” asks Miles, already in a much better mood than before. “Are we having a picnic?”

Kitty laughs, and Tom shakes his head fondly.

“We needed to talk to you,” he says, “and we didn’t want to be overheard.”

He looks at Kitty awkwardly, as if he doesn’t know how to carry on.

Miles furrows his brow. “What is it? It’s- it’s not Elliott, is it?” he says in an undertone, as if saying the man’s name out loud will summon him to the beach with them.

Kitty shudders. “God, no.” Then she smiles. “It’s something much more pleasant than that. At least,” she exchanges a glance with Tom, “we hope so.”

Tom reaches for Kitty’s hand, as if for reassurance, and then - he reaches for Miles.

Miles’s brain short-circuits.

“W-what?” he stammers. Tom immediately takes his hand away, looking alarmed, but Miles snatches it back unthinkingly, and then, realising what he’s done, blushes. Tom holds it tight, so Miles can’t change his mind and let go. He is looking at Miles hand, focusing on it, probably so he doesn’t have to look at Miles, Miles thinks.

Kitty is smiling, nearly grinning. “We noticed,” she starts, when it becomes clear that both Tom and Miles have become temporarily speechless, “that you- hadn’t exactly been happy, the past few months.” She takes Miles’s hand, and Miles is surprised how reassuring he finds it, when she strokes her thumb up and down his. “You were…happy for us, or you tried to be. But it was clear you weren’t exactly…happy. You’ve been looking…tired, and Tom says you haven’t been sleeping properly, and you’ve been avoiding us.”

“What is this, have a go at Miles day?” he asks, but he is smiling very slightly, because he thinks he knows what’s coming.

“Tom thought it was because you were in love with me,” she says, completely casually. Miles cannot look at either of them. “I said, perhaps that’s true but…I had noticed what Tom hadn’t. The way you flirted with me…it was exactly the same as the way you flirted with Tom.” Tension hangs in the air, the question there, the accusation, the possibility, and all of them seem to be holding their breath.

Miles looks at Tom’s hand, still in his, and breaks the silence. “Yes,” he says, looking into Tom’s eyes. “Yes.” He looks at Kitty, and she is smiling at him, serene. He starts to smile, and Tom tackles him to the ground in a hug. “You did all this for me?” he says, gesturing at the picnic blanket and wondering how the two of them had had the courage.

“You idiot,” Tom says, and his voice is full of unbridled emotion, so often levelled in anger and frustration, now in overflowing love and affection, and Miles cannot believe it’s aimed at him. “How long?”

“ _So_ long,” says Miles, and then they are kissing, and Kitty is kissing them, and they stay like that for what seems like hours (but is probably not more than ten minutes, Miles thinks later), kissing and cuddling and giggling, and Miles cannot believe his luck, quite honestly.

 


End file.
